Vera Ralston

Vera Ralston

Born: July 12, 1920
Died: February 9, 2003
in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vera Ralston (born Věra Helena Hrubá) was a Czech figure skater and actress. She later became a naturalized American citizen. She worked as an actress during the 1940s and 1950s.

As a figure skater, she represented Czechoslovakia in competition under her birth name Věra Hrubá. She competed at the 1936 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 15th. Later that season, she competed at the 1936 Winter Olympics, where she placed 17th. During the games, she personally met and insulted Adolf Hitler. Hitler asked her if she would like to "skate for the swastika." As she later boasted, "I looked him right in the eye, and said that I'd rather skate on the swastika. The Führer was furious." Hrubá competed at the 1937 European Figure Skating Championships and placed 7th. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a naturalized citizen in 1946.

She moved to Hollywood with her mother and signed a contract in 1943 with Republic Pictures. During her career she was known as Vera Hrubá Ralston and later Vera Ralston. She normally played an immigrant girl, because of her limited English skills. Among the 26 films Ralston starred in were: Storm Over Lisbon; Dakota; I, Jane Doe; The Fighting Kentuckian; A Perilous Journey; and Fair Wind to Java. She retired from films in 1958.

In 1952, Ralston married Republic studio head Herbert Yates. Yates was nearly 40 years her senior, and had left his wife and children to be with Ralston. Yates used his position to obtain roles for Ralston, and at one point was sued by studio shareholders for using company assets to promote his wife. Yates died in 1966, leaving his $8 million estate to Ralston. She suffered a nervous breakdown shortly thereafter, remarried, and lived quietly in southern California.

She died on February 9, 2003, in Santa Barbara, California, after a long battle with cancer. For her work in films, Ralston has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. A registered Republican, she supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Vera Ralston, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies for Vera Ralston...

The Man Who Died Twice
Title: The Man Who Died Twice
Character: Lynn Brennon
Released: June 6, 1958
Type: Movie
An innocent nightclub singer becomes mixed up in illegal drug dealings shortly after witnessing her husband's death and the murder of a couple of narcotics agents.
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The Notorious Mr. Monks
Title: The Notorious Mr. Monks
Character: Angela Monks
Released: February 28, 1958
Type: Movie
A drunken driver, his wife and a hitchhiker equals murder.
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Gunfire at Indian Gap
Title: Gunfire at Indian Gap
Character: Cheel Palmer
Released: December 11, 1957
Type: Movie
A stagecoach is attacked by a group of outlaws who make off with a pile of money. Unfortunately for Mexican Juan, the sheriff believes he's one of the criminals and has him locked up. But the beautiful Cheel thinks Juan is innocent, and offers to help him escape. Overhearing their plan, the real mastermind behind the heist forces Juan to act as the runner for the money.
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Spoilers of the Forest
Title: Spoilers of the Forest
Character: Joan Milna
Released: April 4, 1957
Type: Movie
Vera Ralston plays Joan Milna, who shares several thousand acres of valuable Montana timberland with her stepfather (John Alderson). Coveting Joan's property, lumber baron Eric Warren (Ray Collins) sends out his foreman Boyd Caldwell (Rod Cameron) to persuade her to sell. Instead, Caldwell falls in love with the girl, vowing to protect her trees from the eco-unfriendly Warren. Republic's wide-screen Naturama process is shown to good advantage throughout Spoilers of the Forest.
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Accused of Murder
Title: Accused of Murder
Character: Ilona Vance
Released: December 21, 1956
Type: Movie
A police detective finds himself entangled in the web of the underworld when he falls in love with a nightclub singer accused of murdering a crooked lawyer.
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Timberjack
Title: Timberjack
Character: Lynne Tilton
Released: February 18, 1955
Type: Movie
A young man seeks his father's killers among lumberjacks, and discovers that they are actually timber barons who also seek to control lumber mills. Based on the novel of the same name.
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Jubilee Trail
Title: Jubilee Trail
Character: Florinda Grove
Released: May 15, 1954
Type: Movie
A wild-west trader and his New York wife head out for the California by wagon train. The trader is killed enroute, and his wife finds herself with child. She continues on hoping to find a man and a home.
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A Perilous Journey
Title: A Perilous Journey
Character: Francie Landreaux
Released: April 5, 1953
Type: Movie
A ship of women embarks on a voyage to California. Director R. G. Springsteen's 1953 adventure drama stars Vera Ralston, David Brian, Virginia Grey, Charles Winninger, Veda Ann Borg and Hope Emerson.
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Fair Wind to Java
Title: Fair Wind to Java
Character: Kim Kim
Released: January 28, 1953
Type: Movie
The Dutch East Indies, at the end of the nineteenth century. An adventurous captain of an American merchant vessel is looking for a sunken Dutch vessel containing 10,000 precious diamonds. Unfortunately, he's not the only one and then there's also that volcano on the nearby island of Krakatau, waiting to explode in its historical, disastrous eruption...
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Hoodlum Empire
Title: Hoodlum Empire
Character: Marte 'Marty' Dufour Gray
Released: April 15, 1952
Type: Movie
It's a deadly play for power when a Mafia chieftain's top gun goes straight and threatens to testify against the big boss and his cruel, nationwide network of crime. The picture, which was shot in a semi-documentary style, was inspired by the Kefauver investigations of 1950-51.
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The Wild Blue Yonder
Title: The Wild Blue Yonder
Character: Lt. Helen Landers
Released: December 5, 1951
Type: Movie
Wendell Corey and Forrest Tucker star as a pair of World War II Army Air Corps officers. In between their battles over the affections of a beautiful nurse, Corey and Tucker prepare to fly a bombing mission in the South Pacific. Before boarding their B29 Superfortress, Tucker appears to be chickening out, but he's steadfastly at his cockpit post at takeoff time.
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Belle Le Grand
Title: Belle Le Grand
Character: Daisy Henshaw / Belle Le Grand
Released: January 27, 1951
Type: Movie
Upon her release from prison for a murder she didn't commit, a woman finds that her younger sister has been placed in an orphanage. Determined to do whatever it takes to get her out, she eventually becomes the proprietor of a notorious gambling establishment.
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Surrender
Title: Surrender
Character: Violet Barton
Released: September 15, 1950
Type: Movie
Violet Barton, a femme-fatale goal-setter, fascinates men and readily returns their affection to obtain the wealth she desires, even to the point of bigamy. She has an affair with gambler Gregg Delaney but marries his best friend, Johnny Hale, when she discovers Hale is the richest man in Texas. This loses her the respect of her sister, Janet, who loves Hale, and Delaney, who loves Violet. Meanwhile, town sheriff Bill Howard is working hard to get Delaney to confess to a murder.
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The Fighting Kentuckian
Title: The Fighting Kentuckian
Character: Fleurette De Marchand
Released: September 15, 1949
Type: Movie
John Breen (John Wayne), a Kentucky militiaman falls in love with French exile Fleurette De Marchand (Vera Ralston). He discovers a plot to steal the land that Fleurette's exiles plan to settle on and aims to foil it.
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Angel on the Amazon
Title: Angel on the Amazon
Character: Christine Ridgeway
Released: November 1, 1948
Type: Movie
An expedition exploring the Amazon jungle comes across a jungle goddess who lives among the animals and fears none of them--and apparently has found the secret of eternal youth.
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I, Jane Doe
Title: I, Jane Doe
Character: Annette Dubois / Jane Doe
Released: May 25, 1948
Type: Movie
While stationed in France during World War II, an American fighter pilot marries a French girl but leaves her behind when he returns to the U.S. The French woman follows him to America only to discover he’s already married to a successful lawyer.
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The Flame
Title: The Flame
Character: Carlotta Duval
Released: November 24, 1947
Type: Movie
George McAllister, the black sheep of a wealthy family who has squandered his share of the family inheritance, lives in constant jealousy, hatred and resentment of his half-brother Barry, who has been supporting him. George gets his girlfriend, Carlotta Duval, a job as Barry's nurse, with the idea being to marry him, kill him, and inherit his money—and marrying George.
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A Week in the Quiet House
Title: A Week in the Quiet House
Character: Sieglová
Released: August 22, 1947
Type: Movie
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Wyoming
Title: Wyoming
Character: Karen Alderson
Released: July 28, 1947
Type: Movie
Small ranchers battle against a land baron trying to take their spreads.
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The Plainsman and the Lady
Title: The Plainsman and the Lady
Character: Ann Arnesen
Released: November 11, 1946
Type: Movie
Film about the early days of the Pony Express and the crooked businessman who opposed it.
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Murder in the Music Hall
Title: Murder in the Music Hall
Character: Lila Laughton
Released: April 10, 1946
Type: Movie
An orchestra leader turns sleuth to clear his ice-skating girlfriend for murder.
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Dakota
Title: Dakota
Character: Sandy Poli (Devlin)
Released: December 15, 1945
Type: Movie
In 1871, professional gambler John Devlin elopes with Sandra "Sandy" Poli, daughter of Marko Poli, an immigrant who has risen to railroad tycoon. Sandy, knowing that the railroad is to be extended into Dakota, plans to use their $20,000 nest egg to buy land options to sell to the railroad at a profit. On the stage trip to Ft. Abercrombie, their fellow passengers are Jim Bender and Bigtree Collins, who practically own the town of Fargo and Devlin is aware that they are prepared to protect the little empire... trying to drive out the farmers by burning their property, destroying their wheat, and blaming the devastation on the Indians. Continuing their journey north on the river aboard the "River Bird', Sandy and John meet Captain Bounce, an irascible old seafarer. Two of Bendender's henchmen, Slagin and Carp, board the boat and relieve John of his $20,000 at gunpoint. Captain Bounce, chasing the robber's dinghy..
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Lake Placid Serenade
Title: Lake Placid Serenade
Character: Vera Haschek
Released: December 23, 1944
Type: Movie
On a peaceful, pre-war winter in Czechoslovakia, the genial godfather, Jaroslav Haschek, of Vera Hascheck, presents the young girl with her first pair of ice skates. Soon, she astonished the warm-hearted people of her village with her skill, and she is acclaimed a marvel-on-ice.
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Storm Over Lisbon
Title: Storm Over Lisbon
Character: Maria Mazarek, aka Maritza
Released: October 16, 1944
Type: Movie
A nightclub star helps trap an enemy agent on the trail of an American newsman.
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The Lady and the Monster
Title: The Lady and the Monster
Character: Janice Farrell
Released: April 17, 1944
Type: Movie
A millionaire's brain is preserved after his death by a scientist and his two assistants, only to create a telepathic monster.
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Ice Capades Revue
Title: Ice Capades Revue
Character: Vera Hruba - Ice-Capades Skater
Released: December 24, 1942
Type: Movie
Promoter Ann Porter decides to start her own Ice Show despite the efforts of ex-racketeer Duke Baldwin who owns a rival show. Jeff Stewart, a rich, suave young Broadwayite, falls in love with Ann and aids her in her fight against Baldwin.
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Ice-Capades
Title: Ice-Capades
Character: Ice-Capades Skater
Released: August 19, 1941
Type: Movie
Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.